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The Spirit of the Lord will lift up a Standard againft the Enemy, when he comes in like a flood, in Ages to come.

IF

F we look forward, as through the prospective glafs of prophecy, we may fee how, in future ages, when the enemy fhall come in like a flood, the Spirit of the Lord fhall lift up a standard against him.

Here, indeed, the utmost caution is neceffary, left we mistake the meaning of prophecy. Time alone will fully explain, what the most searching and fagacious cannot. In the interpretation of fcriptüre-prophecy, many have greatly erred; especially fuch as attempted to know the times which God hath referved in his own power. It were good if their mistakes taught others modefty.If on any fubject therefore, furely in this, our words fhould be few. We mufl not intrude into things which we have not feen; nor with audacious hands attempt to rend the impenetrable vail of futurity. Vain man would be wife; and yet he knows

not what a day may bring forth. And if so, who can prefume to give a detail of the future, as they

Proteftants, if allured, muft fuffer for their folly. If believing that the ferpent of Popery hath loft it's fting, they receive it as into their bofom; though late, they fhall be convinced of their fatal mistake, when ftung to the very heart. Soon as the Nazarite was afleep, the uncircumcifed Philistines were upon him. Having finfully.faut his eyes, he next, in awful judgment, loft them, Judg. xvi. 19, 20, 21.

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may of the paft? Who can tell at large, what shall befal the church, betwixt this, and the appearance of the great God our Saviour? We may, as with a retrospect view, enumerate the various ftages of her journey, fince the began to tread the wilderness; but who can count what weary steps she may have ere the reach Immanuel's land? Thefe are known to God alone. In the book of his immutable decrees, they all are written. And, as far as we can learn from the fure word of prophecy, to which we do well to take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, the Spirit will, in two remarkable inftances, lift up a standard against the enemy; viz. in the refurrection of the witnesses, and in the destruction of Gog and Magog.

ift, When the enemy fhall come in like a flood, in flaying the witneffes, the Spirit of the Lord fhall lift up a standard against them in their refurrection. The prophecy concerning this we have, Rev. xi, 1,-13. There we read, that they shall prophecy a thousand two hundred and threefcore days, clothed in fackcloth, ver. 3.; i. e. they, as witnesses for God, fhall bear their teftimony fo long against the enemy. But, ah! how affecting to read, that when they fall bave finished their teftimony, the beast that afcendeth out of the bottomless pit, shall make war against them, and fhall overcome them, and kill them, ver. 7.-By the two witneffes, I understand the noble few, who, cleaving to the truths and ways of God, bear teftimony against the enemy, in whatever form he appear. They are called two, to denote the paucity of their number, and yet their fufficiency in the hand of God to testify for him. And it would

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feem, that in the number, as in their character, there is an allusion to the three couple of witnesses under the Old Teftament; viz. to Mofes and Aaron, in Egypt; to Elijah and Elisha, in Ifrael; and to Ze rubbabel and Joshua, after the captivity. The witnesses are faid to prophecy in fackcloth, which was the ufual habit of mourners. Joshua was feen in vifion, as clothed with filthy garments, Zech. iii. 3. They are faid to prophecy twelve hundred and fixty days. The fame is the time of the woman's abode in the wilderness, Rev. xii. 6. While the witneffes prophecy in fackcloth, the Gentiles tread the holy city under foot forty and two months; which, reckoning 30 days to a month, make juft 1260 days. And power was given to the beast to continue the fame space, viz. forty and two months, Rev. xiii. 5.— As the witneffes and the woman are one, viz. the afflicted church of Chrift; fo the beast and the Gentiles are the Popish enemy, perfecuting the Chriftian church, as the Heathens did the Jewish. And as the forty and two months of the enemy's reign is precifely equivalent to the twelve hundred and fixty days, during which the witneffes prophecy, I think, analogy, and the nature of the fubject requires, that they should commence together, and of confequence be finished at one and the fame time.

As the woman's flight must be dated from the dragon's attempt to devour her man-child, fo must the prophecy of the witneffes from the treading down of the holy city by the Gentiles. But if Antichrift's forty and two months began, as we judge they did, about the middle of the eighth century, anno 756, then the twelve hundred and

fixty days of the witnesses are not yet finished; they have not yet been overcome and flain: and therefore it remains, that according to fcripturetestimony, they muft. That the witneffes have never yet been overcome, is evident from the history of the church. There have still been some in a bleffed fucceffion. It is too obvious to need a proof, that Antichrift's reign is not yet ended. The holy city, the church of Chrift, is ftill troden under foot; and therefore the witneffes are ftill in their fackcloth, the woman in her wilderness-ftate: hence I make no doubt, but the flaying of the witnesses is yet to come. Towards the end of their appointed time, they must have hotter work than ever. Their fackcloth must be rolled in their blood; and with their death they muft confirm their long-continued teftimony. Towards the end, the enemy's fury shall be great, Knowing that he hath but a fhart time, Rev. xii. 12. He fhall overcome the witneffes, and kill them.

I know that many understand their death in a political fenfe, not a corporal. But, in my apprehenfion, many of the witnesses shall be corporally killed, as all of them shall politically. It seems probable, that the last efforts of the Antichriftian powers, fhall be the moft terrible of all fince the Reformation, as they fhall certainly be the moft fuccessful. It is not credible, that the harlot's dropfical thirft after the blood of the faints fhall decrease towards the close of the appointed time: nay, is it not natural to think, that fhe fhall devour and drink with the greater greedinefs, as for fome time she has been under a partial reftraint?

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The witneffes fhall all be politically flain. They shall not appear: and what does not appear, is to us as if it did not exift. God fhall ftill have his hidden ones. But to himself only they shall be known, and not to the world: no more than were the feven thousand to Elijah, 1 Kings xix. 18. Probably preachers and public ordinances fhall ceafe for a while. A midnight filence fhall accompany that midnight darkness. The night however shall not be long: For, after three days and an half, the Spirit of life from God fhall enter into the flain witneffes, and they fhall stand upon their feet, Rev. xi. 11. That is, as many think, after three years and an half, reckoning a day for an year, according to prophetic style, Ezek. iv. 6. Three years and an half fhall the spiritual drought continue, as did the natural in Elijah's time, Luke iv. 25. Jam. v. 17. *

My learned and worthy friend, Dr. Erfkine of Edinburgh, in his letter to Principal Campbell of Aberdeen, dated the 24th of May, 1780. hath these remarkable words, "I may be mif"taken, and nothing could give me fincerer joy, than on good "grounds to be convinced of my mistake. I will, however, "frankly tell you my present opinion. Popery will, for three 66 years and an half, again prevail, even in countries now Pro"teftant. Her deftruction will then be accomplished, not by "riots, treasons, and affaffinations, by which she has so often "destroyed her oppofers, but by a happy change in the fenti"ments of the kings of the earth. He, who punishes not the "fon for the iniquity of the father, will bring about that change, "at a period when there fhall be found in the mystical Baby"lon, the blood of the prophets, and of the faints, and of all "that were flain on the earth.

"How near, or how remote that period may be, I know "not. Venema, a learned, ingenious, and moderate Dutch "divine, in an Academic Oration, lately published, has ob

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